At Anfield, which has always been known for its fanaticism, the possibility of being the focus of the game in the away coaching bench is almost non-existent, unless the man is named Steve Gerrard.
Last night's Premier League battle between Liverpool and Villa, the significance of the game has long receded to the second place, Andfield loyal soul returned home after 6 years, so that the Reds fans who have always been serious about righteousness will not hesitate to give applause collectively.
Everyone's 1-0 not only allowed the team to keep up with the standings, but also made Jay's trip home not too embarrassing.
But for Gerrard, who failed to say goodbye to his parent team as a player, the visiting coaching bench was only a short stay, and the home coaching bench was the next finish. Three years later, when Klopp ended his contract and was recuperating, the young and energetic Jay team fulfilled his vow of a life team, and it was timely.
Gerald shook hands with Klopp.
Famous people dig pits, and the Jie team sees the tricks
Since moving south to villa, the fifth game of Gerrard's Premier League coaching career has been highly concerned by all walks of life, without him, which is the first time since the former Liverpool captain left the team for 6 years, facing the parent team as an opponent.
As early as last week, there was a narrow animation adaptation that spoofed the speech of the 20 team managers after the end of the last round, and when it was Gerrard's turn, a serious Jay team said: "This is the third game I have won since I led the team in 5 games..." The narrator interrupted Gerrard, reminding him that he had only played 4 games with the team, only to be reminded by Gerrard in a serious way: "Don't you know that I lost 0-3 at Anfield on December 11?" ”
The joke continued to ferment before the liverpool and Villa wars. As the team's 80s marksman, Ian Rush's pre-match interviews with Gerrard were full of ill-intentioned difficulties: "Owen said he hated going back to Anfield, what do you think?" Gerrard saw the trick: "If I've been to Manchester United, I hate to come back. ”
As the twin stars who were pinned high hopes at the beginning of this century, Gerrard and Irving, who were only one year old, were the expectations of the team's revival, but their careers went further and further along a very different trajectory: the latter first jumped to Real Madrid, then exported to domestic sales to Newcastle, and finally braved the world to put on the Manchester United red shirt, almost becoming the most unpopular one at Anfield. Every "homecoming" was accompanied by the highest decibel boos, and it's no wonder that the 2001 Ballon d'Or winners had no good impression of their home team.
Gerrard, on the other hand, is completely different, although his career failed to regain the top league title for the team, but a big ear cup and several dark moments of determination, especially the extremely tragic "Century Slip" in 2014, gerrard has long been booked a prominent position in the team's Hall of Fame even if he did not end up at Anfield.
As Van Dijk said: "Gerrard will always be a Liverpooler, you think of the team and you will inevitably think of him, he has always been a legend of the Reds, he has always been welcomed here. ”
As a player, Gerrard is the presence of liverpool at the moment who still has to take off their hats to pay tribute, but as the manager, rookie Gerrard will be taught by Klopp after facing Guardiola.
Gerald greeted Milner.
Compared with the youth present at the time of the "blue moon", Gerald matured a lot after 10 days. Throughout the first half, Gerald, who was also standing in command, was so calm that he hardly made a sound; in stark contrast, Klopp, only half an hour after the game, "Uncle Scum" repeatedly went to the fourth official to ask for advice.
Although the current Premier League coaching experience can only be calculated in minutes, for Gerrard, who has always been inquisitive and active, this game has cashed in a lot of tactical attempts at Villa, especially his familiarity with Liverpool, which made the old club's first 45 minutes extremely difficult:
Defensively, Cash, Consa and Mins were extremely good at collective movement, maximizing the use of dense areas and complementing each other to defuse the constant pressure of the Reds' trident, while Watkins, who was usually alone in the opposing half, made Van Dijk nervous on several singles, and even lost a yellow card.
Compared with the high-stop, low-stop, extra-focused Damian Martinez, Alisson is undoubtedly the most foreign presence in the first half, and the Brazilian almost missed the ball twice, and saw his fans' blood pressure go up.
Unfortunately, Villa and Liverpool are not in the same weight after all, and the experience and on-the-spot response are not in the same weight, when Mins knocked Salah down in the box with an inconspicuous foul, Villa, who had been united in the past, finally fell short. After all, the former is only a fringe international of the Three Lions, while the latter has been a Golden Globe favorite for many years.
"The final result is determined by a penalty. Liverpool got the penalty and we didn't, it was very brutal, Salah had fouled Mins before he got a penalty and our striker Ince was ignored after being fouled in the box, which made me very disappointed and we ended up losing the game because of an ambiguous penalty. After the game, Gerald's disappointment was palpable.
But for Villa, who shot 4 times on goal (0 shots on target), which is only equivalent to 1/5 of the home team, this loss is really planned, and the whole game makes the old club play extra hard, and the Jay team, who is not fully familiar with the team, has already given it everything.
Five years of monster fighting upgrades, a thick accumulation of hair
In the past 17 times the Reds veteran has led the team to Anfield, lost 15 games here, and Gerrard became the 16th loser, which is indeed a high probability event.
But in the past 5 years, Gerald, who has been fighting monsters and upgrading all the way, has gradually progressed in new roles.
On November 24, 2016, Gerald, who had fulfilled his contract with the LOS Galaxy, announced that he was hanging up his boots. After retiring from the red army, the captain of the Red Army hardly rested and immediately began his coaching career. In January 2017, Liverpool offered Gerrard the position of coach of the youth team, which he gladly agreed. Half a year later, Jay, who had gained a lot of experience from Klopp, led the team to the reserve league and the youth Champions League.
Soon after, the wanderers, who were in the painful rebuilding period after the upgrade, extended the olive branch of a 4-year contract to Gerald, and Gerald still agreed to his first adult coaching job.
In the first two seasons at the helm of the Rangers, due to the limited strength of the team, Gerald failed to lead the team to win any championships, but the reborn Wanderers were in the Soviet Super League, already under one team, above the teams. Thanks to their deep connections in the Premier League, Rangers, who constantly loaned young talents to strengthen their squads, finally completed the counter-kill last season.
Playing 15 consecutive wins, they not only crowned the Soviet Super League 6 rounds in advance, but also made the dream of 10 consecutive championships of the rival Celtics come to naught. 32 wins, 6 draws, 102 league points, all new records in the history of rangers. For the players' era of zero league titles, the new owner's 55th Scottish top league title is really of groundbreaking significance to themselves.
Gerrard, who has rebuilt the team, personal honors have also ushered in a great harvest, and the best coach of the Scottish FWA season, the best head coach of the Soviet Super League, and the best coach of the PFA Scotland Coach of the Year are really the limelight.
In rangers history of nearly 150 years, Gerrard is the 11th head coach to win more than 100 games and the second non-Scottish manager to do so after Dutchman Ed Walkat.
Gerrard has accumulated a lot of coaching experience.
More importantly, the Soviet Super League, which has been poor and weak in the European war in recent years, has also rewritten the weak posture due to the arrival of Gerald. Last season, rangers who played in the Europa League first eliminated the superstar Galatasaray in the qualifiers, and faced Benfica, Standard Liege and Lechpoznan in the group stage, with an unbeaten record of 4 wins and 2 draws, and did not lose to the dark horse Slavia Bragg until the 1/8 final.
Of course, Gerrard's biggest regret last season was that the Scottish League Cup lost 2-3 to St. Mirren's, failing to achieve the domestic double, and in the cup journey, Gerrard also ushered in the first "two yellows for one red" in his coaching career due to protests against referees. This is also the only civil war lost last season for the wanderers who were alone in Su Chao.
This season, although the rangers monopoly advantage is no longer last year, and the second round of the league was crushed by Dundee United's unbeaten golden body across the season, before Gerrard went south to high, the team still overwhelmed the Celtics with a 4-point advantage, and the initiative to defend the title was still in its own hands.
Gerrard, who does not have to worry about the problem of rice bowl, chose to return to China to coach at this time, and he also has a bit of achievements and a taste of excitement, after all, when he was a player, he gave up the opportunity to run to Chelsea in order to practice loyalty, and in the coaching era, there are many less entangled Jay teams, which can plan their famous manager's life in advance to avoid similar regrets repeating.
'I've always tried to suck things like a sponge, to learn something different from all the coaches I've played for – Hollier, Benitez, Capello, and Rodgers and Eriksen. Gerald, who made his manifesto for taking office, was humble and ambitious.
"I learn how they build the team, learn their tactical arrangements on the pitch. As a head coach, you need to do things your own way, but having worked with so many top coaches, if you don't try to learn and use their knowledge to serve yourself, you're a fool. ”
It turns out that Gerrard and Villa are a match made in heaven, and in the first game of his tenure, Gerald led the team to beat Brighton 2-0, and the shortest time allowed the team to get out of the shadow of a five-game losing streak.
Villa's only 2 losses so far have only lost 1, the opponent is still the premier league table and the eye of the table, once slipped into the relegation zone of Villa, returned to the middle of the game, but also found a long-lost confidence.
Coaching Liverpool is Gerrard's ultimate dream.
Back to Liverpool and writing a love story again?
'It's so hard to say goodbye to Liverpool and I hope I'll say 'goodbye' instead of 'goodbye'." On New Year's Day 2015, Gerrard's New Year's message was not to continue to be in the same boat as the team, but to announce his whereabouts early.
For the next 6 years, he played here for the Elders, and also here to cheer for the Anfield Night, and it may only be a matter of time before he returns to his parent team, and this time meeting as an opponent may just be a slightly abrupt episode on the way back.
After all, after taking off his boots, Gerrard's words and deeds to his old club, both on and off the pitch, are the essence of human emotional intelligence, and even now as an opponent, he has never changed.
Look at the KOP stands fans who took the initiative to greet gerrard when he entered the game before the game, and the continuous and warm applause of more than 50,000 spectators at Anfield before the opening was from the heart. So, the question that no one can avoid is, will Gerald one day stand in the coaching staff of Anfield and continue to serve the parent team in a new capacity?
At least on this point, Klopp has made no shied away from it: "Gerrard is a Legend of Liverpool, and that will not change, nor should it change. I'm not going to stay at Liverpool forever, so I hope it's Gerrard who will always be here. ”
Klopp also expressed support for Gerrard's future seat on Liverpool's managerial bench.
However, dna alone is not enough to control the giants. Before Gerrard, Lampard and Solskjaer have successively let the parent team pay for the feelings, and Arteta, who has just improved, is only a long-term illness and remains to be seen. The identity of the celebrity is a banner that inspires his subordinates and fans, but it is also the original sin that is particularly black when he walks back.
Moreover, in Klopp's schedule, when the contract expires in 2024, it is the day of temporary retreat. Gerrard, who will be tested by two and a half Premier League seasons, even has an advantage in experience than his peer Xavi when he took over barca. But like the "ventilator" that no one can use today, Gerrard will also have to face a particularly delicate team situation at that time.
2024 is the inevitable rebuilding year for Liverpool at the moment: in the forward trident, Firmino and Salah's existing contracts will expire in 2023, and Mane will become free in the summer of 2024, even if the capital pays the "Pharaoh" 400,000 pounds a week, then Liverpool Will be 32 years old, already past the peak age.
Outside the forward line, core players such as Van Dijk and Alisson have also entered the veteran sequence, and as one of the few players in the Reds who has competed with Gerrard at the moment, the 35-year-old Henderson, the best identity may be Gerrard's assistant, not the captain of Liverpool.
In other words, Liverpool, which has gradually entered the first group of European giants in the past three years, is likely to complete this peak period under Klopp. And Gerrard's first priority when he took office, just like his player-era bosses Evans, Hollier, and Benitez — tear down and rebuild, start all over again.
For the DNA manager appointed by the giants in recent years, this is a very familiar scene, Solskjaer and Lampard are all leading the team to correct the chaos, and then get the approval of the owner, and the most emperor noble Zidane, before taking over the turbulent Galaxy battleship in 2015, they also just lost Barca a 0-4 at the Bernabeu.
Not to mention That Henry II, as a capital of Liverpool, after leading the team to be crowned in the Champions League and the Premier League successively, the investment has decreased season by quarter, and in the case of the epidemic situation is still unclear, it is not ruled out that he will accept it when he sees it and change hands with the team.
It is true that Gerald, who has coached step by step, whose performance and potential are far better than his peers, may have long been accustomed to hard times, but the end of the giants may not be ALL DNA, even if the loyal and learnable Team will not be an exception. (Supine Braces/Yang Jian)
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